11 militants killed in Afghan raids

Beijing, July 15 (Xinhua-ANI): Eleven militants have been killed and 18 others arrested in separate Afghan operations within the last 24 hours, the country's Interior Ministry confirmed on Monday morning.

"In past 24 hours, Afghan National Police (ANP) conducted several joint clearance operations with the cooperation of Afghan National Army, NDS (Afghan intelligence service) and Coalition Forces to clean some of the areas from terrorists and enemies of peace and stability of Afghanistan.

The operations were conducted in Baghlan, Kandahar, Wardak and Helmand provinces. As a result 11 armed Taliban were killed, four wounded and 18 other armed Taliban were arrested, the ministry said in a press statement.

The ANP also discovered and confiscated some amount of light and heavy rounds ammunition and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) , it noted.

Figures released by the Afghan Interior Ministry shows more than 120 insurgents had been killed, 52 wounded and nearly 120 others detained during military operations since July 1 across the country.

The Taliban has intensified attacks since late April when they launched annual rebel offensive against Afghan and about 100,000 NATO-led forces stationed in the country.

The insurgent group has yet to make comments.

On Sunday evening, two policemen were killed and five others wounded when a police mobile was struck by an IED in Nadir Shah Kot district of eastern KHost province, official confirmed earlier on Monday. (Xinhua-ANI)